Abstract :
Rome, Italyʹs largest city, has about 3 million inhabitants and covers an urban surface area of 360 sq. km. The insect fauna of this area has been the object of research since the second half of the 19th century. Rome is one of those rare cases in Europe where urban expansion in the last century took place on an area, the ‘Campagna Romana’, which had been practically uninhabited. A study based on a critical revision of the entomological literature published from 1850 to nowadays, together with other unpublished material has evidenced the presence and the microdistribution of about 5200 species belonging to not less than 356 families. Such information, although so vast, is however still incomplete. Documentation for groups such as Heteroptera, Coleoptera, Diptera, Macrolepidoptera and Hymenoptera Aculeata, which have traditionally been studied by local entomologists is quite complete, but groups such as Collembola, Psocoptera, Phtiraptera, Thysanoptera and Homoptera are still poorly documented. From a preliminary global analysis of data collected, it can be clearly seen that from the end of the 40ʹs there has been a general impoverishment of the species, particularly in those communities linked to wetlands. Aspects linked to urbanization which have influenced, or influence the insect fauna are also evidenced: 1) environmental modifications which took place in the last one hundred years on a local scale (the rapid urbanization of the city from 1870 onwards due to its role as capital of Italy) and on a regional scale (land reclamation and progressive human impact on the ‘Campagna Romana’, modifications to the flow of the river Tiber and its tributaries, chemical control of culicides as vectors of malaria); 2) the presence of large central green areas and greenways (historical villas and archaeological areas) and their role in the conservation of biodiversity.
